PNP regional units screen gun license applicants, try to weed out 58,000 papers with bogus docs

“We discovered some errors your honor when we started receiving some complaints from various sectors since its (IRR) implementation in December 2013,” PNP Civil Security Group (CSG) director Melito Mabilin said before the House of Representatives committee on good government.

 

Mabilin said the PNP earlier opted centralize the licensing procedure after finding out that there were around 58,000 fictitious license holders nationwide.

 

“Upon annual verification of firearms, PNP discovered a lot of fictitious names. This prompted the PNP to verify all firearms license holders from Regional down to municipal.

 

Ilocos Norte Representative Rodolfo Fariñas agreed that the “best person to identify the license holder would be the police officer in the municipal or barangay level. How can the chief of the PNP or the director of the FEO identify these license holders?” 

 

Mabilin also told the committee that a technical working group to initiate a possible review of the IRR.

 

The ranking PNP official admitted that they have received lots for criticism for centralizing at the PNP general headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City the application process for securing license to possess firearms.

 

Gun owners and buyers are required to secure from the PNP Firearms and Explosives Office (PNP-FEO), based in Camp Crame, a License to Own and Possess Firearms or LTOPF.

The committee also took shots at the implementing rules and regulations the PNP uses to enforce regulate firearms.

 

Fariñas zoomed in on the provision in the IRR stating that a separate trust account for the licensing business must be created.

 

“Wala naman sa RA ito hindi ba? Bakit biglang may ganitong provision sa IRR?” Fariñas asked, to which Mabilin replied: “That is to create fund that would be used to finance the expenses of FEO.”

 

Farinas also questioned section 8.6 of the IRR stating that “20 percent of the total collection from the licensing must be retained as FEO regulatory fund to direct operating expenses”

 

Mabilin cited Sec. 3 of Executive Order 256 dated December 21, 1995 issued by then President Fidel Ramos, stating that the “FEO shall retain 20 percent of fees and charges to fund expenses of FEO other than what is appropriated in the General Appropriations Act (GAA).”

 

Committee chairman Pampanga Rep. Oscar Rodriguez, said that the PNP cannot use the said EO as basis for creating the IRR for a new law.

 

“Hindi pwedeng maging basehan ang EO dahil hindi yan batas at  itong IRR ninyo ay para sa bagong batas na naipasa,”Rodriguez said.

 

“It is a very defective IRR that causes confusion and inconvenience to the gun owners. If you’re living in the province, you have to come to Manila to complete all these requirements,” Rodriguez added. — ELR, GMA News